


Basil

by intheflowers



Series: If I Had An Orchard [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 1960s AU, Also a bit of hurt/comfort because thats how I roll, Dave lives, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Klaus has feelings about parenthood, M/M, Supportive Dave, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Violence towards cabbages, animal adoption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21591802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intheflowers/pseuds/intheflowers
Summary: ‘I’ll ponder fate and all her mysteries as much as I like, thank you very much,’ Dave said, grinning down at Klaus smugly.‘Fate didn’t send me a fucking lamb to help me confront my childhood trauma, David.’Klaus and Dave adopt a lamb. Emotions ensue.
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Series: If I Had An Orchard [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1487120
Comments: 43
Kudos: 260





	Basil

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this sickly sweet monstrosity in september after seeing like, one daffodil and thinking about lambs for a moment (spring fever got me good) and then promptly forgot about it for a couple of months. But now it's here for you to enjoy! So please, enjoy!

Klaus woke from a shallow sleep. Dave was warm behind him, snoring softly, a heavy arm draped across Klaus’s side. That always made him feel secure, more than anything else in the world, but he couldn’t help the chill that ran up his spine as he heard a faint wailing sound, so familiar to his ears. 

He squinted at their bedroom - softly lit by strings of fairy lights - and released a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding when he saw it was empty. By some miracle, there were barely any ghosts in their little house. The ones that had been hanging out here had been quite amicable when he’d finally faced up to them and asked whether they’d mind moving on someplace else. (And sure, maybe he’d been a bit passive aggressive about it, and maybe he’d sighed reluctantly when saying that he’d probably help them with any of the shit still on their deathly to-do lists, as long as they weren’t too obscene or time-consuming, and as long as it meant they’d get out of his hair faster. By some stroke of luck, they didn’t seem to mind. Didn’t ask for much at all. In fact, once they realised that he could see them, they’d been very apologetic, even a bit embarrassed: their running commentary and gossip about himself and Dave hadn’t gone unnoticed.)

Then he heard the wailing again. It was distant, perhaps downstairs. 

Dave barely stirred when Klaus gently pushed his arm away - the man slept like a log. Klaus wrapped himself in a blanket against the early spring chill, and tiptoed down the creaky stairs, following the strange sound. He thought perhaps it was a young ghost. A baby, maybe. If so - well, he didn’t know what to do about that. It would throw a bit of a spanner in the works for his plan to yell at them for interrupting his sleep. He started bracing himself, because even though he was used to all manner of gore and horror, baby ghosts always came with a sickening punch in the gut. 

Downstairs, he switched on all the lights, ducking in and out of rooms. They were all empty. 

The ghost wailed again, short and sharp, and Klaus realised now that it was coming from outside. It sounded weird. He slipped his feet into the pair of gumboots by the door, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself, and stepped out into the chilly night. 

‘Hey, ghostie,’ he called, breath misting. He couldn’t see anything obvious even once his eyes adjusted, and it was silent again. ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are.’ 

There was frost on the grass, crunching beneath his boots. Under the moonlight everything in the garden was silvery-grey. Distinct. He walked out into the dark, past the cabbages (Dave was obsessed with holishkes), listening hard. 

Then the ghost wailed again, wherever it was. Only now that he was outside, it was less of a wail - and more of a bleat. 

Klaus followed his ears, darting over to the thin triple-wire fence past the apple tree. Just in front of it, he found his pale spectre: a stupidly tiny lamb with mud up to its knees, shivering in the cold. 

‘Oh my god,’ Klaus breathed. ‘What are you doing out here, baby? All by yourself in the middle of the night?’ 

He sank to a crouch, the blanket trailing in the mud - but he didn’t notice. Any sleepiness had vanished; every bit of him was fixated on the timid little lamb frozen in place and staring up at him in fright. 

‘Hey, little guy,’ he said softly, making little clicking noises with his tongue. ‘Come here.’ The lamb stayed where it was. He tore a long piece of grass and held it out, wobbling it up and down, saying all manner of cutesy-shit and nonsense sounds to get it to come closer. 

The lamb backed up a bit, then curiosity took over, and it stretched its neck forward, sniffing at the grass. Klaus pulled the grass closer in, then closer again, and then once the lamb was within arm’s reach he seized it around the middle, lightning fast. 

It bleated again, wriggling and kicking fiercely with its filthy little hooves, but it quickly stilled. Klaus patted it, pulling the blanket off his shoulders and wrapping it around the lamb. He was bare-chested now, freezing himself, and he kept patting it and murmuring to it as he made his way back indoors. 

Closing the door with a slam, he hopped across the kitchen trying to get his gumboots off, trying not to bounce the lamb around too much. It bleated again, wriggling in its blanket cocoon, and once Klaus was free of the boots he went into the warmest room of the house - the living room - where the darkening embers of a fire were dying down in the fireplace, and placed the lamb gently on the floor in front of it. 

With a heave, he lifted a new long onto the embers, and a bunch of smaller pieces of kindling, and it didn’t take long for it to roar anew. The lamb seemed tired. It was just sitting there, still caught up in the blanket and shivering, although it had turned its faced towards the heat pooling out from the fire, its eyes closed. Klaus sighed, thinking about what to do, then ran upstairs to get a sweater, and more blankets, and Dave. 

Klaus had to shake him a few times. Although there were many scars which still lingered in their minds and on their bodies after Vietnam, a soldier’s ability to wake up at the first sign of trouble was not one of the things Dave had brought home with him, although it had taken him a few months to adjust back to sleeping the whole night through. Eventually he woke up, grumbling incoherently.

‘Ngh,’ Dave said. ‘Whassit?’

‘Sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep, babe,’ Klaus murmured, leaning down to kiss his sleepy face, ‘but there’s a bit of an emergency.’ 

Dave blinked up at him blearily. ‘Eh?’

‘We’ve got a guest.’

‘A ghost?’

‘No, a guest. A little friend. A very cold little lamb.’

Dave scrunched up his face in confusion. ‘Like a sheep?’

‘Yes, like a sheep. Come on sleepyhead, I have no idea what I’m doing.’ Klaus tugged him up by the arm, Dave groaning with the effort and the cold as the blankets fell away. ‘I left it by the fire, so hopefully it hasn’t roasted.’

Gathering up a bundle of blankets, Klaus went back downstairs, Dave following close behind. 

They didn’t get much more sleep that night. Dave’s practical knowledge clicked into action, thank _god,_ because Klaus had no fucking clue what he was doing. They made sure the lamb was warm then heated up some milk - according to Dave, cow’s milk would have to do for now until they could get some better stuff tomorrow, until they could start looking to get it back to its mother. 

‘She might just be lost,’ Dave said, halfway to dozing with his head on Klaus’s shoulder, Klaus running his fingers through the unusually messy brown curls, ‘but there’s a good chance her momma abandoned her. Won’t want her back.’ 

The lamb itself was curled up on Klaus’s lap, asleep, while the two of them were sitting on the floor in front of the fire, leaning against their couch, piled up in blankets. 

‘Oh,’ Klaus said, an odd sinking feeling in his stomach. He suddenly felt very tired, and his hand dropped down from Dave’s hair to rest on the lamb’s now-clean wool. 

Dave didn’t complain at the absence. He was already snoring. 

The next morning, Dave went about asking nearby neighbours whether any of them had lost a lamb, but either none of them had and the lamb had literally turned up out of nowhere, or one of them was lying and didn’t want the responsibility of raising an abandoned baby. Had perhaps dumped it in the first place. 

‘That solves it then,’ Klaus said upon his return. 

‘Does it?’

‘Uh-huh. Obviously we have to keep her.’ 

‘Klaus-’

‘We _have_ to,’ he said determinedly, going to the cupboard and getting out his knitting equipment. The lamb’s hooves tapped on the floor as she followed at Klaus’s heel like she’d been doing all morning, nuzzling his ankle. 

‘It’s a lot of work,’ Dave said, sitting down to undo his boot laces. 

‘Pshh. I’ve got the time.’

‘What about when you’re at the restaurant?’ 

‘I’ll take her with me.’ 

Dave laughed. ‘Oh yeah? Marcela’s forgiving, but I doubt she’s that forgiving.’ 

‘I’ll sneak her in,’ Klaus said, hands full of speckled, multicoloured wool, peering down at the lamb. ‘And she’ll be good and sleep in the cupboard under the sink all day. Won’t you, miss?’

Dave laughed again, dropping his shoes by the front door with a thump. ‘Under the sink. Of course. Fuck, I love you.’ 

‘Sooo... we’re keeping her?’

‘Sure. Why not?’

Klaus cheered in celebration, bumping the cupboard shut with his hip. 

Dave watched him, amused. ‘Do you seriously think I look like the kinda guy to turn a poor, defenseless lamb away from our door?’

‘Nope,’ Klaus said. ‘Never doubted you for a minute.’ 

‘Oh, you liar.’ Before Klaus could collapse down on the couch with his armful of wool, Dave swooped in with a kiss, lingering a moment, hand calloused on his cheek, ever gentle. ‘You want eggs for breakfast?’ 

It was a Sunday, so both of them were free for the day. Klaus settled down in front of the fire, the lamb immediately clambering back onto his lap. He began to knit furiously, a knobbly jumper emerging between the needles. It was just the thing the lamb would need to keep warm against these bitingly fresh spring days. 

They shared the feeding duties between the two of them, using a baby bottle to give her warm milk every few hours. Dave reckoned she was about three days old. Old enough to be eating a bit of hay and grass, out of curiosity at the very least. 

Speaking of, the lamb somehow managed to decimate the basil plant on their sunniest windowsill when their backs were turned. After the long winter, it had been in a pretty sorry state even before she began to nibble, and now it was stumped and leafless. She seemed to enjoy it immensely though, and kept skipping over to the window, sniffing out new leaves, and so they called her Basil. It made sense. 

After pronouncing her healthy, albeit slight malnourished, the town’s vet recommended that they put the little thing in diapers to save from mess inside, and that combined with the first teeny sweater that Klaus knitted made her look like a fully dressed doll. 

She followed Klaus everywhere. Up and down the rickety stairs, outside, down along the garden, back inside again, trailing little muddy hoof-prints on their kitchen floor. She only followed Dave if he had the milk bottle in hand, but he didn’t seem to mind too much. 

‘Watch out,’ Dave said as Klaus opened the bathroom door. Steam poured out. The lamb was waiting right outside like a lapdog, skittering to her feet as the door collided with her, bleating up at Klaus.

‘Oh my god. Basil. Can’t a man have a moment of peace?’ He glanced up at Dave, who was sprawled in an arm chair, a book propped open on his knee. ‘I swear she’d have a bath with me if she could.’ 

Dave grinned. ‘I think I’m a bit jealous.’

‘Yeah, watch out, Katz. Tough competition right here.’ Klaus leaned down, towel piled precariously on top of his head, and scooped Basil up into his arms. She bleated. ‘What?’ Klaus asked, eyeing her right in those freaky rectangular pupils. ‘What. Do. You. Want?’

‘You know, the more you baby her, the more she’ll bother you.’ 

Klaus went still, then forced himself to nod, saying, ‘I guess.’ 

But he couldn’t bring himself to let go of the lamb, and instead held Basil even closer, her soft, velvety ear rubbing against his chin. She was only a baby. What was the harm in babying an actual baby? Especially one with such a sweet, smiley face? He’d need a heart of ice to ignore such a face. 

Dave’s book shut with a quiet thud, and Klaus looked up, startled. He dropped the book on the floor, then beckoned Klaus over, scooting over so there was a slight space for Klaus to slot into, but not quite enough to prevent him from mostly sitting on top of Dave. Klaus sat down with a sigh, laying his head on Dave’s shoulder, leaning into him. 

‘I’m sorry,’ Dave said, wrapping his arm around him. ‘I didn’t think.’ 

‘Nah, you’re alright,’ Klaus said, settling Basil more comfortably on his knee. 

‘It’s bullshit advice.’

‘No, it’s true. Boundaries, right? A bit of tough love, otherwise she’ll be spoiled rotten.’

Dave opened his mouth then closed it again, before saying, ‘I don’t… I mean, I guess, to an extent, but still...’

Klaus shook his head in amusement, then tilted his face up, kissing Dave on the soft spot where his jaw met his neck. Dave hummed, his arm tightening around Klaus. It made him feel secure. Safe.

‘You don’t have to tiptoe around me, trying to say the right thing,’ he said softly. ‘I know I was abused. It’s no secret. I also know that I’m projecting onto her now - which is stupid, because she’s a sheep.’ 

‘It’s not stupid, Klaus.’ 

‘Well, maybe not, but she’s still a sheep, and it’s still a _very_ different situation. It’s just…’ He looked down at the sleeping lamb, stroking a velvety-soft ear. ‘She’s so tiny. How could anyone abandon her? Leave her all alone in the cold? Yet both her mom _and_ whatever scumbag farmer chucked her out to die clearly didn’t bat an eye.’ 

‘It’s sad, and it’s cruel, that’s what it is. But we’ve got her now, yeah? After all that, maybe she deserves to be spoiled a bit.’ 

‘Maybe.’

‘It’s not like it’s a hard task,’ Dave added, reaching across to pat Basil too. ‘She’s too damn cute for her own good.’ 

‘Where will the similarities end?’ Klaus murmured, which made Dave laugh. 

‘You know,’ Dave said, ‘there’s probably a reason she wandered onto our property, and woke you up at four in the morning from all the way outside -’

Klaus groaned, throwing his head back. ‘Oh, Christ - not this again. You _know_ I’m a light sleeper, and we basically live in the _countryside._ Don’t go all mystic on me.’

‘I’ll ponder fate and all her mysteries as much as I like, thank you very much,’ he said, grinning down at him smugly.

‘Fate didn’t send me a fucking lamb to help me confront my childhood trauma, David.’ 

‘Why not? She sent you right to the foot of my bed. From the future. Basically naked too, might I add. That was a sign and a half.’ 

Klaus swatted at him. ‘God, you’re so gay.’ 

‘Mhmm.’ 

‘And wrong.’

‘Never.’ 

‘Alright then,’ Klaus said, swivelling in Dave’s lap so he could see his face properly, lifting his legs so they hung off the side of the chair. He felt resolution burn through him, fiery and full. ‘You win. I’m gonna love this little lamb so hard that she overflows with it, until she’s totally spoiled, until there’s not even a whisper of a memory of being left out in the frost. Because she fucking deserves it.’ He picked Basil up, placing a kiss on her woolly head. ‘She’s _my_ needy little bitch.’ 

Klaus bought Basil a little bed, which sat right at the foot of his and Dave’s bed with an oil heater next to it, radiating warmth. 

He made countless sweaters, all hideous, all perfect. 

He took Basil to work with him, letting her skip at his heels as they walked into town, stopping often to let her nibble at the grass. Just before he arrived, he’d zip Basil into a backpack with only her head poking out, which he knew wasn’t at all discreet but Klaus couldn’t give a shit either way - at least no one could fault him for not trying. He then settled her under the sink as he prepped food and washed dishes at the local restaurant, taking breaks to feed her bottled milk whenever she needed it. 

Marcela found out _very_ quickly. But by then all the other kitchen staff were very fond, and they all put up a unified front. Klaus thought that Marcela relented rather quickly too, and although she insisted that Basil stay out of the kitchen, she did let her play in the fenced-off children’s garden when it was sunny, and put up a pen for her in the staff room when it was cold and rainy. Soon enough, to the general surprise and amusement of most diners, Basil was venturing out into the restaurant on Marcela’s heels too - unless Klaus was in sight, of course. 

She skittered around their house, jumping onto chairs and tables and benches. The sound of her hooves clattering across their bedroom in the morning was more reliable than any alarm clock. 

She ate at least four of Dave’s prized cabbages before he caught her running rampant in the garden.

‘You’re bad!’ he chastised, holding the remains of one poor cabbage in one hand, and Basil in the other. ‘Naughty little lamb! Awful beast!’

Klaus came running out. ‘Don’t be mean to her!’

‘She ate my cabbages! Three of them, Klaus. Maybe four!’

‘She’s hungry!’ He took her out from Dave’s arm.

‘That’s not hungry. That’s just obscene.’

‘Well… I’m sure they were very tasty.’

‘They would have been,’ Dave said, looking mournful. ‘We need to keep her on a leash or something.’

Klaus gave him the evil eye. ‘A _leash_?’

‘I dunno.’ Dave looked at the sad cabbage in his hand. ‘Look at this mess! She can’t just run wild. That’s not such a crazy request, is it?’

Klaus sighed dramatically. ‘Fine. I guess not. The things I do for you and your cabbages, Davey-baby.’

They ended up building her a pen by the side of the house. Basil was growing bigger now, and the days were warming up - it was best for her to spend more time outside. 

The first night she stayed out there by herself, Dave found Klaus staring wide-eyed and unseeing at the window, cup of tea gone cold in his hands. 

He rubbed his shoulder gently. ‘You alright, sweetheart?’

Klaus made a small noise of surprise, coming back down to earth from wherever he’d been lost.

‘Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking.’

Dave peeled his hands away from the cup, setting it on the sill. ‘You wanna come up to bed?’

‘Mm,’ Klaus hummed, nodding, though his eyes went distant again. ‘Hey… do you think it’s weird that I’m like, _super_ emotional about Basil being-’ The words were swallowed up before they could be spoken, and he had to gesture outside to finish his sentence. ‘You know.’

‘No,’ Dave said softly. ‘I don’t think that at all.’

‘I just keep thinking - what if she misses me?’ 

‘Then she’ll wake you up by screaming bloody murder. But she won’t. She’ll be fine.’ 

‘She’s all by herself!’ 

‘Just for a night.’

‘But what if it gets really cold?’

He could tell Dave was trying not to laugh, and he appreciated the attempt. 

‘I’m sure her wool will keep her warm. She’s got plenty of it nowadays.’ 

‘True.’ Klaus sighed shakily, nearly pressing his nose against the pane of glass, peering out into the darkness. ‘I also gave her a beanie, just in case, but I think she shook it off. The scarf’s still on though. I think. That should be enough.’

‘Definitely,’ Dave said, resting an arm over Klaus’s shoulders. ‘That sheep is so damn loved, Klaus.’ 

‘I know… and I know I’m being ridiculous. It’s just…I remember what it’s like.’ He felt Dave tense against him. ‘To be left. You know?’

‘Oh, love,’ Dave said, and he pulled Klaus into an all-encompassing hug. ‘If it’s messing with you this much, you could just let her inside for another night. Don’t force it if you’re not ready. It’s not worth the grief.’

‘But you were so excited to have our bedroom back -’ 

‘It’s not about me. I honestly don’t mind.’

‘Really?’ he asked, hesitant.

‘Yes, really.’ Dave cocked his head towards the door. ‘Go on. Go get her.’ 

Thing is, when Klaus went down to her pen Basil was already asleep, curled up on her bed of hay. She ignored him entirely. He stood there with his hands on his hips, considering her for a long minute, before patting her wool and going back inside. 

Up in the bedroom, Dave raised an eyebrow when Klaus came in alone. ‘Where is she?’ 

Klaus shrugged. ‘She’s fine. Sleeping.’ 

‘Really?’ 

‘Mhmm.’ He stripped down to his underwear then clambered in next to Dave, hiding his face, throat too thick to talk any more. 

He kept seeing her - pale in the dark, perfectly fine - interspersed with flashes of crumbling walls of stone, the sliver of light disappearing as a door closed, again, and he felt the deep, deep cold sinking into his bones, his blazer too thin, bits of rocks pressing into his bare knees, and he saw the shadows coming closer and closer, heard them mutter terrible things as the dark swallowed him up. He shivered - tears pricking at his eyes, hurriedly squeezed shut - and barely noticed as Dave held him tight and warm and close. 

‘Hey… I’ve got you,’ Dave said, and with that something in Klaus unravelled and he began to sob, uncontrollably. 

‘Oh god,’ he moaned at one point, sniffing loudly. ‘This is so embarrassing.’ 

Dave made a sympathetic sound, kissed the top of his head. ‘No, just cry, baby. Let it out.’

‘It’s just… I love her so much.’

‘I know, I know.’ 

‘And she’s fine. She’s fine, I know she is, but I _wasn’t._ I wasn’t and I was all on my own out in the cold, and he left me there.’ His voice cracked. ‘How could he leave me, Dave? I was just a kid. We were all just kids. And we just wanted… we just wanted… _fuck.’_ More sobs wracked Klaus’s body, and he tried not to listen to the cruel voice in the back of his head telling him it was weakness. ‘He wouldn’t even say _goodnight_ to us… Not even that. I thought there was something wrong with me.’ 

Dave made a pained sound, held Klaus even tighter - if that was even possible. 

The outburst was fading now, though. He felt lighter. His head was all stuffy, and his eyes swollen, but the pressure pushing down within, like his ribcage was constricting, had finally let up and he was able to breathe deeply once more. Took big, shaky breaths, calming himself.

Dave rubbed his back soothingly, then tilted Klaus’s chin up so they could look each other in the soft light of the room. There was a kick in his gut when he saw that Dave’s eyes were shiny too with unshed tears. He looked devastated. 

‘He didn’t deserve you,’ Dave said fiercely. ‘Not any of you.’ 

‘Mm,’ Klaus agreed, almost too exhausted to say anything else on the matter.

Gently, Dave wiped the tears from Klaus’s cheeks with his hand. ‘It's true. He was a heartless bastard. A slimy, rotten piece of shit. And I hope you know I would happily march myself right over to wherever the fuck he’s living now to give him a piece of my mind. And punch him straight in his weasely, worthless face.’

Klaus laughed, tearily. ‘Have I ever told you that I love you?’

Dave laughed too. ‘Might’ve done.’ Then he gathered Klaus up in a bone-crushing hug. ‘I love you _so_ much, okay? So, so, so much. And so does Basil. And your weird siblings in the future. And my family. And most of the town too-’ 

‘I think most of the town’s in love with you, actually.’

‘They can love more than one of us.’ 

‘But you’re their _favourite_.’ 

‘Well, yeah. But only because someone knocked out the whole town’s electricity for a day.’ 

Klaus groaned. ‘For the last time, that was an accident, I swear! Honestly, you try getting to grips with telekinesis -’ 

‘You stole a _tractor!_ ’ 

‘I borrowed it!’ 

They continued to bicker, even getting the pillows involved, rolling around the bed laughing and dodging well-aimed attacks, and Klaus didn’t waste any more thoughts on the scars left by his father. Not tonight. He did still worry in the back of his mind about his dear sweet Basil, out on her own. But the dread of it, the bad associations - they didn’t have half the power over him as they did earlier in the evening. 

In the morning he ran outside into the calm morning sun, dew underfoot, and Basil greeted him at the edge of her pen with a bleat, nuzzling into his palm. No hard feelings, then. Even better: the scarf was still on. 

Klaus sighed happily, undoing the gate. ‘Come on then, girly. Let’s go inside.’ 

***

In the early days of summer, Dave came home one day with a small parcel tucked under his arm - a box tied up with a rainbow ribbon. He dropped it into Klaus’s lap.

‘What’s this?’ Klaus asked curiously. 

Dave shrugged. ‘Just open it. You’ll see.’ 

Klaus made short work of getting into the box, tearing the ribbon off and ripping into the flimsy cardboard. Then, he pulled out... a cup. 

‘Oh my god, Dave,’ he said. ‘Fuck off.’ 

Dave grinned. ‘I thought it suited you.’ 

It was a simple mug decorated with a flock of bright orange and very round cartoon sheep. Glaringly 1970s, but he couldn’t exactly judge it for that, seeing as that was currently the height of fashion. 

‘There’s a note inside,’ Dave said. 

And so there was. Klaus tipped it out and unfolded it: 

_For the best (and cutest) dad in town,_

_Happy Father’s Day! I LUV you!_

_From your beloved, spoilt, diva of a sheep,_ _  
__Basil xoxoxo_

There was the imprint of a muddy hoof too, next to the signature. Dave had even written the note with his damn left hand.

Klaus went bright red. ‘Christ on a _cracker_ , David.’ 

Dave just laughed. ‘Is it too much?’ 

‘Too much?! It’s horrible! Sickening! God, how do you just get more and more perfect every day?’ He grinned up at him, shaking his head. ‘I love it so much. Thank you.’ 

‘Don’t thank me,’ he replied sincerely. ‘It’s from Basil.’ 

‘Oh, of course.’ 

‘And she’s right, you know.’ Dave collapsed onto the couch beside him with a heave, arms and legs splayed wide, chucking one over Klaus’s shoulder. ‘You are the cutest dad in town. And a damn good one.’ 

‘Yeah, to my sheep,’ he said sarcastically. ‘Lotta work, that one.’ 

‘Hey, don’t go forgetting the baby stage just because she’s an independent young lady now. Remember the sleepless nights? The constant tears?’ 

Klaus swatted at him. ‘You are such an idiot.’ 

‘Sure am, daddy-o,’ Dave said, giving Klaus a big smooch on the cheek. ‘But I’m _your_ idiot.’

Later, out in the evening sun, Basil the grown-up sheep nibbled on the fresh, sweet grass offered to her by her favourite father, a shiny rainbow ribbon around her neck. She felt radiant and special and safe, and she was very happy about it.

**Author's Note:**

> im not crying over the mental image of a baby lamb in a woolly jumper sitting on Klaus's knee and following him everywhere, YOU'RE crying


End file.
